Amkor targets Arizona production 2028

Amkor is building a $2 billion semiconductor packaging and test plant in Peoria, Arizona, and says phase 1 is slated to be operating in 2028. (amkor.com) Packaging is the step after wafers are made: it connects, protects and combines chips so they can work inside servers, phones and cars. Modern artificial-intelligence processors often use several chip pieces in one package instead of a single slab of silicon. (reuters.com) (amkor.com) Amkor and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, said in October 2024 that they signed a memorandum of understanding to bring advanced packaging and test to Arizona. TSMC said it would buy turnkey packaging and test services from Amkor’s planned Peoria facility. (amkor.com) The companies said the Arizona setup would sit close to TSMC’s wafer fabs in Phoenix, cutting product cycle times by putting front-end manufacturing and back-end packaging in the same state. They said the packaging technologies under discussion included Integrated Fan-Out and Chip on Wafer on Substrate, known as CoWoS. (amkor.com) Amkor says the Peoria plant will focus on advanced packaging and test for artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, mobile, communications, automotive and industrial chips. The company says phase 1 will employ more than 1,300 local workers, and its Arizona page advertises 2,000 jobs by 2028. (amkor.com) The project is part of a broader push to move more of the chip supply chain into the United States after years in which most advanced packaging stayed in Asia. Amkor says the Arizona factory stems from the U.S. CHIPS Act effort to strengthen domestic semiconductor supply chains. (amkor.com) That backdrop shifted again on April 22, when Reuters reported that TSMC itself plans to open a chip-packaging plant in Arizona by 2029. Reuters said the move would localize a bottleneck in producing high-performance artificial-intelligence chips. (reuters.com) Amkor’s role is different from TSMC’s. Amkor is an outsourced semiconductor assembly and test company, meaning chip designers and foundries hire it to package and test chips after fabrication rather than doing that work entirely in-house. (sec.gov) Amkor’s latest investor materials underline why the timing matters: the company reported record first-quarter 2026 revenue of $1.68 billion on April 27, with management pointing to advanced-packaging demand as a growth driver. A U.S. packaging base in Arizona would place that demand next to TSMC’s expanding Phoenix manufacturing footprint. (ir.amkor.com) (amkor.com) The next marker is execution. Amkor still has to bring phase 1 online in 2028, while TSMC has separately said it is targeting Arizona packaging by 2029. (amkor.com) (reuters.com)